iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Carl Poree

Miles Taylor @milestaylor.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Trump’s ex-chief of staff John Kelly said this to me, six years ago: “I don't know how he’s not in an institution somewhere, whether it’s jail or a nuthouse. He’s a seriously sick guy. I never heard him saying anything that wasn’t a lie.” Trump has only gotten worse since.

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

No problem! Brilliant piece, as always!

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Henri Kagan, not Henri Frank, in the 9th paragraph!

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Jooooohhhh No! @josefoshea.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

What a weird world we live in - Ukraine hits a data centre deep in Russia - Irish twitter users see racist posts about IPAS centres in Offaly fall off a cliff

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I am not as familiar with all of the most recent work in this area as I'd like (it's genuinely fascinating, I just don't have the time!), but I would have thought Donna Blackmond a very worthy third recipient of this particular Nobel...?

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Their next article is on why Andrew Mountbatten Windsor's new childminding service has so few bookings.

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Reposted by Carl Poree

John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

We have determined that replacing the chemistry building I work in at a regional university would cost around $0.5 billion dollars. So 2.5 billion would build 5 largeish institutional buildings. That doesn't do squat. Probably the damage is on the order of a trillion dollars or so.

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I assume they advertise in all of the appropriate ecclesiastical periodicals?

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Yeah, you're stuffed when they come asking for paperwork. They're just going to think you've got a qualification in drinking tea, queueing and moaning about the weather.

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Going to have to hunt down that GCSE English Language certificate.

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Reposted by Carl Poree

Velour Shirt @object.works · 29/09/2026

This is a metaphor for so many things these days that I couldn't choose

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Annoyingly, I've forgotten the paper. I reckon if I had half a day, I might be able to track it down. I remember the corresponding author and the year...

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I've seen published work in which an 80/20 selectivity was rationalised on the basis of BF4- speciation (between two diastereomeric cations, I suppose). 😬 It is a biggish isotope shift, but still...

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I will never top my student recognition abilities from 2020-1. Socially-distanced Y3 labs. I could take attendance at the door of the lab for both groups of ~35/40, even with everyone in face masks! Just eyes, height, hair...

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Probably not. They'll never encounter one in our teaching labs, but most will have had plenty of practice at high school!

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The academic advising is still 1-2-1, though! No rest for the wicked!!

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

We see them for weekly chemistry tutorials as a group in the first semester of Y1. Then they rotate each week between the academic advisor and two other tutors in the three main branches of the subject for the rest of Y1/2. So you tend to end up with multiple groups after semester one.

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Well, I'm still slightly at a loss to explain why we have tutorial groups of seven instead of six this year. I know we've recruited an excess of students, but we still have ~50% of our staff without Y1 tutor groups. Make it make sense!!

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Low 20s - normally six per year, with not everyone doing Y4, and the occasional second group inherited when colleagues leave/go on sabbatical etc.

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Reposted by Carl Poree

Paul Greatrix @registrarism.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Many areas of higher ed are being affected and disrupted by Artificial Intelligence. But some areas seem immune to AI’s impact. Here is the new top 10 of HE things which are not going to be impacted. Top 10 Higher Ed Features Which Will Not Be Affected By AI wonderfulhighered.com/2026/09/28/t...

wonderfulhighered.com

Top 10 Higher Ed Features Which Will Not Be Affected By Artificial Intelligence

Many areas of HE are being disrupted by Artificial Intelligence. But here is the all new top 10 of HE things which are not going to be impacted by AI

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Reposted by Carl Poree

Ryan @ryanwright.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This is how I remember the order of Henry VIII’s wives.

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It's not been the same since Mel and Sue left...

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Demolish Birmingham (the city), expand Birmingham (the airport) and build HS2 in full. Job done.

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I spent three happy years being taught organic chemistry by RQ. Cannot *imagine* her being rendered speechless.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

All day Piddington's womminfolk have been telling news how they will be terrified of "hundreds of young men nearby, free to come and go as they please." NOT ONE JOURNALIST has asked: "How did you cope when it was an army base? Who came and went then? Nuns?" Soon as you ask that, all becomes clear.

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Reposted by Carl Poree

Amanda @pandamoanimum.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Happy 5th anniversary to the time this happened over on that other place.

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Same. I haven't heard much more, maybe some mumbling about the madness of it. Haven't had a PDR this year, come to think of it. Time to schedule four!

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This one is particularly barmy, even by UoM standards.

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

NIMBY Brain is a real disease, and serious research is needed to find a cure.

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

"Have arrived in Antarctica. Dreadful smell of penguin shit, which would be acceptable if it were at least *curated* penguin shit, with gift shop at exit. Brought crisps, but catering otherwise poor."

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Reposted by Carl Poree

Nadine Batchelor-Hunt @nadinebh.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The dark irony of people pearl clutching about the ethnic cleaning statements is if you actually spoke to the average hill top settler they would tell you: yes, we are ethnically cleansing - that is exactly what we are doing

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Reposted by Carl Poree

Charles Fourier @charlesfourier.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Bill Bryson’s words seem appropriate to post right now

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Inspired by a... noughties(?) directory enquiries ad?

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Only four or five times. Eleven tea crates, plus some furniture and IT. I'm going from an office with built- in shelving to one without. I really hope the second bookshelf turns up... 😬

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Two days of packing up 2.062 to move upstairs to 3.013 has obviously taken a toll. Turns out, I have a *lot* of stuff in my office.

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Forgetting to put your laptop in your bag when you go home is surely a sign that you're too tired to work that evening anyway, right?

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

(Didn't realise (dppf)PdCl2 had another moniker!)

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

That's a fairly exotic isotope... someone in the lab was working on 108Pd, but 118 sounds a bit hefty 😝

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

To be fair, who amongst us hasn't worked with at least one person who could be outwitted by a crow?

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

90 years ago, Parliament responded to the rise of Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts by passing the Public Order Act, which banned political uniforms, private militias and the threat of force for political objects. The debates make very resonant reading today. Here's the Liberal Robert Bernays. (Short 🧵)

You cannot conduct a fair match when one side is playing with a ball and the other with bombs and, if democracy is to survive, it must be conducted according to definite and recognised rule. One of them is that no political party should resort to any weapon other than reason and argument. The introduction of private armies, as I see it, strikes at the root of democracy. I know it is contended that the Blackshirts are not armed and, therefore, are not an army, but I do not think that argument can be upheld. … Uniformed men in military formation suggest, and are meant to suggest, the idea of force. It is no argument to reply that at this or that demonstration no force is intended. It is an inescapable fact that a uniform in politics symbolises force, to be used either now or in the future.

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Reposted by Carl Poree

Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Oh wow, nobody saw that coming. If you let yourself be entranced by the same three snake oil salesmen who have captured the entire sector and who only understand "staff cost" as an entry in a spreadsheet, not all the contributions we make that don't fit that silly excel box, this is what you get.

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Reposted by Carl Poree

Julia Laite @julialaite.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Anyone working in the sector already knows, but still good to see it in black & white. Professional services *people*--not just interchangeable hubs of administration--are essential to a good university. Their institutional knowledge has been consistently undervalued & their loss is catastrophic.

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Ah, so we're not the only ones with an *unusually large* cohort incoming...

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Quite how a single building near Temple Meads makes it "easier for staff and students to commute" is not obvious. The rest of the University is still a ~30 minute walk up the hill.

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Reposted by Carl Poree

Parody Nigel Farage @parodypm.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

"It was at this point that an oyster went down the wrong way and blocked my ear canals, meaning I missed the whole conversation where I agreed to a foreign donor illegally giving us £500,000..."

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Didn't realise Trump and Andrew Neil had a timeshare on that Brillo pad.

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Carl Poree @cpchem.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that those are not the two extremes of "all music".

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